Chapped

Oh the joy of Chapter Mapping - the exact point where I usually get bored, frustrated with the monotony of it, feeling that I am once again in school, trying to coax my learning resistant brain into working.

This is where the work really begins, and exactly why I usually jump ship. It. Takes. Ages.

Only this time, as I went along, re-reading each chapter, stripping it to the bare bones, I wasn't resisting. I was still scared, intimidated and confused, but alongside the usual emotions, strangely dedicated, geeking out on the process. Predictably, my notes got shorter, comments less useful, and fields were skipped as I worked through, but I had the gist. And the gist is what I needed.

I should point out, that at this stage, I'm using the word 'chapter' very loosely, because the first draft is not written with clear breaks. I decide to chop it up where the location changes, or something significant peters off.

I've included an example below. I abbreviate all my characters to their first initial for ease:

Chapter:	14
Tense/Narration:	H-First
Characters:	C
Summary:	H thinks about the big, cruel fight with P. C is rehearsing her lines with H. Relationship improves, C seems to warm to H. Learn that P had talent/wasted potential.
Main plot/action:	Hinting towards the ugliness of the last P and H meet.
Sub plots:	C and H relationship.
Character notes:	H as eager to win C over still. H showing regret for last words spoken to P.
Thoughts:	P set at 30 and working in a coffee shop. P as a talented artists - not used. Probably delete this one or move - ends really cliche. Would be funny if this relationship (H&C) improved as H&D disintegrated. Further argument to why should be third person, as H monologue goes against novel end.

Some of these maps are chunky, some are sparse, some feature big question marks in the field 'Main plot/action', making it glaringly obvious that the scene is fluff. Many contain pretty useless, vague remarks, which suggest either that the chapter is bad, or I'm not focused enough and it needs a re-visit.

I also have diary entries running through the novel, and decide to mark them as separate chapters for the time being.

Once completed, I took my time reading over it, absorbing what I'd flagged, particularly what I'd included in the 'Thoughts' field.

The biggest splinter was the tense. The first draft was in first person, but my ending would only work in 3rd person. The ending is a twist, a reveal (hopefully), involving the protagonist, so I can't really have her feigning no knowledge of the secret throughout the novel. A more experienced or daring writer might enjoy this challenge, but I wanted her to have a genuine, raw voice and didn't see a way around it.

The prospect of having to re-write every chapter from a new perspective was daunting enough, but it wasn't even that straight forward. I had terrible chapters, pointless chapters, several exploring a subplot that I knew I would drop, bizarre jumps in time, no sense of character, and frequent varieties of the conclusions, 'Nothing happens here', and 'Doesn't make sense.'

This sees me into January 2016.